Key'd

“Tell me what this is,” Jaco demanded, holding the key out upon his flat palm.
“I can’t...I can’t…” I struggled against the force of my body. I felt my body beginning to grow faint, and if I refused much longer, I’d die. I fell to my knees in defeat and looked up with tears in my eyes.
“It’s the key to my heart.”

23. Chapter 23

Chapter 23

The doorbell rang and we all groaned. “Who can it be this time?” Cheri said, crawling out from our fort. Sashay and I followed her and we once again grabbed the baseball bats. Cheri was the one to walk up to the door this time, “Who is it?”

“A very angry mother!” a woman replied. The girls and I groaned again. Cheri opened the door to MY very angry mother who stood with her hands on her hips. “What do you girls think you are doing sneaking off like this?” She stormed into cabin with Cheri sheepishly closing the door behind her.

“Mom, I can explain,” I started.

“You better start now, I’ve got their mothers on speed dial,” Mom gestured to my best friends. So I led her into the living room and we all sat down and began our story. I was mostly telling it, with occasional spurts from either of the girls. She sat there politely and listened and when I was done, she opened her mouth to speak.

“So, you’re engaged?” That was not the first thing I thought she would say, I thought it would be about dying. I nodded hesitantly, and she nodded. “I’m not approving, but I’m not disapproving. I haven’t met this young man yet, and he better be good enough for you,” She said giving me a look. I nodded and sighed, leaning back into the couch. I had explained the story twice, yet it felt as if I had told it a million times. “So, how have you guys been living? You’ve got food and stuff?” Mom looked over us and we nodded. She stood up, and we followed. “I guess then you guys are good,” she leaned over to give me a hug and I gladly accepted it. Then she just gathered up her purse, and turned to leave. The girls looked at me surprised.

“Are you leaving?” I asked wonderingly. She nodded and began to walk to the door, and we followed.

“You guys seem to be able to take care of yourselves, and now that I know the reason, I’m perfectly fine with you staying here. Your reasons and your story makes me think you need to do this on your own,” she glanced at my friends, “well, with your friends. There’s nothing I can do to help, so it does no good to stay.” By now she was at the door with her hand on the doorknob. She leaned over to give me one more hug before she opened the door and left. We all stood there staring at the driveway and watched her drive off.

“Well, I wasn’t expecting that,” Cheri said slowly closing the door. Sashay and I nodded, so we just headed back to the fort. We restocked the popcorn and M&M’s and continued what we were doing before, as if that incident never happened. But finally, what I knew that was going to come up, came up.

“So…Sashay, now that Jaco seems to be sketchy, what are you going to do?” Cheri asked lightly. Sashay tilted her head to the side and rolled her eyes.

“It’s whatever. I like him, but if he’s going to be a jerk to my best friend, and her fiancé, then he’s not for me,” she said simply. Cheri and I nodded. I was still not convinced Jaco was a bad person; he was just influenced by the wrong people. If I could get him, along with Calimo, over to our side, we could end the Eternal Knights once and for all.